The North American species of Psathyrella.

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MEMOIRS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN

[VOL. 24

1. Psathyrella foenisecii (Fries) A. H. Smith, comb. nov.
Agaricus foenisecii Fries, Syst. Mycol. 1: 295. 1821.
Prunulus foenisecii (Fr.) S. F. Gray, Nat. Arr. Brit. P1. 631. 1821.
Psilocybe foenisecii (Fr.) Quelet, Champ. Jura et Vosges, 147. 1872.
Drosophila foenisecii (Fr.) Quelet, Enchir. Fung. 117. 1886.
Coprinarius foenisecii (Fr.) Schroet. in Cohn, Krypt. Fl. Schles. 565. 1886.
Psathyra foenisecii (Fr.) Bertrand, Bull. Soc. Mycol. Fr. 17: 277. 1901.
Panaeolus foenisecii (Fr.) Kiihner, Contr. Etude Hymen. 187. (Le Botaniste, ser. 17,
fasc. 1-4. 1926.)
Panaeolina foenisecii (Fr.) Maire, Trebl. Mus. Cien. Nat. Barcelona 15: 109. 1933.
Illust. PI. 1; Text Figs. 865-867.
Pileus 1-3(4) cm broad, obtusely conic to convex, becoming broadly umbonate
to plane, glabrous, moist, hygrophanous, "cinnamon-brown" to "warm sepia" to
near "benzo brown" or dingy grayish vinaceous brown, margin at times faintly
striate when moist, when faded "avellaneous" to dingy buff to pallid and typically
atomate, at times the cuticle variously disrupted in age from weathering; no veil
present. Context thin, fragile, watery brown fading to avellaneous or finally pallid,
odor fungoid, taste acidulous.
Lamellae rounded adnate, soon seceding, moderately close to subdistant, broad
and ventricose, chocolate brown to very dull vinaceous brown, in age somewhat
spotted at times from the patches of maturing spores; edges even and whitish.
Stipe 4-8 cm long, 1.5-3.5 mm thick, equal, fragile, pallid to brownish gray
paler above, tubular, base dingy brownish and scantily pubescent, faintly
appressed fibrillose-striate up to the pruinose apical region, twisted-striate at
times; no veil evident.
Spores dark vinaceous brown ("bone brown") in deposits, 12-15x6.5-9 g,
ornamented with irregular low warts or areolate patches of outer wall material,
apex truncate from an apical pore, apex in some tending to appear snout-like,
shape in face view various degrees of ovate, in profile somewhat to obscurely
inequilateral, color in KOH dingy cocoa-color, in Melzer's about the same or
finally a duller rusty brown, wall about 0.5 g thick.
Basidia 4-spored, clavate, 24-30 x 8-11 a, projecting slightly when sporulating.
Pleurocystidia none, but possibly scattered dark-walled (in part) pseudocystidia
buried in the hymenium. Cheilocystidia 28-42x7-13 a, fusoid-ventricose with
obtuse apex, thin-walled, smooth, hyaline, content not distinctive.
Gill trama and pileus trama with incrusted hyphae, the incrustations fuscous
brown in KOH (somewhat as in P. barlae), those in the subcuticular zone darker
colored than the remainder. Cuticle of pileus a cellular layer 2-4 cells deep,
pyriform as well as globose to angular-inflated cells present in it, their walls
thin and smooth, hyaline to weakly ochraceous in KOH. Clamp connections
present.
Type locality. Europe.
Habit and habitat. Scattered to gregarious on lawns, fields and grassy places
generally, May to August, common.
Distribution. Common in southern Canada and the United States, and also
known from Mexico.
Observations. In my experience most mycologists with a general knowledge of
Psathyrella recognize this species as belonging in the genus, and this is also true
of a number of specialists in the past, as already pointed out. Hence my including
the species here is hardly an innovation. The fungus has all the essential features